22 Oct
2011
22 Oct
'11
4:09 a.m.
On Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:09:01 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony
Duell) wrote:
Interesting. This is not at all well-known (I know
people who use Excel
and who need complex numbers who haven't found this...)
I must look into this and see just what it does. In particular, is a
complex number something that's sotred in oen cell or two (if the
latter, it's a kludge!)? Do the normal arithmetic operators work with
them or do you have special functions (written in prefix as opposed to
infix notation) to do this?
I'm not really sure since I found this by Googling,
but it seems as if
you have to enter complex numbers by entering a function. You can't just
type "5+j8" into a cell, you have to go via a dialog box. The number
will be displayed as "5+8j" (you can use anything you like instead of
"j", it is an argument to the function and presumably[hopefully] does
not take part in any calculations. What happens if you use "j" for one
number and "i" for another, and then add them, is open to speculation.
Could be interesting...)
Any arithmetic operators have to be expressed via functions.
In other words, clumsy to say the least, but it may actually work.
Excel functions and macros, of course, are another subject. IMHO the
designer of that functionality must have been an evil, embittered sadist
who probably grew up pulling the wings off insects and attaching
firecrackers to the tails of cats.
/Jonas